OpenAI is experiencing increased internal turmoil as another employee has resigned over safety concerns, following the recent high-profile departures of two executives.
Gretchen Krueger, a former policy research worker, announced her resignation on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday, revealing she left the company on May 14. Her resignation came just hours before learning of the departures of Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, who co-led OpenAI’s now-dissolved Superalignment safety research team.
Krueger stated her decision was made independently, yet she shares the concerns of Sutskever and Leike. She emphasized the need for improved decision-making processes, accountability, transparency, policy enforcement, and mitigation of technology’s impacts on inequality, rights, and the environment.
“People and communities share these worries,” Krueger wrote, stressing that such concerns should not be dismissed as “narrow, speculative, or disconnected.” She highlighted the potential for tech companies to disempower those holding them accountable by sowing division among critics.
Last week, Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist and cofounder, and Jan Leike, announced their resignations. Leike accused OpenAI of prioritizing “shiny products” over safety and cited difficulties in securing essential resources for their critical research.
Their exits follow the resignations of two other safety researchers, Daniel Kokotajlo and William Saunders, who left in recent months due to similar concerns. Kokotajlo expressed his loss of confidence in OpenAI’s responsible handling of artificial general intelligence (AGI).
OpenAI has not yet responded to a request for comment from Business Insider.
This string of resignations underscores growing concerns about safety and accountability within OpenAI, highlighting the need for the company to address these critical issues more effectively.